Average grass growth recorded on our Grass+ farms this week was 7kg per day. Similar to last week, many of the farmers are just getting around to doing their first grass walk now, so these growth rates mostly represent over-winter growth and it’s not necessarily what grew over the last week.
The forecast for the weekend and beyond is reasonably good – or as good as we can hope for. Now is the chance to get freshly calved cows out grazing. The basic objective is to get 30% of the farm grazed in February. If you achieve this you will grow more grass over the year. We all know that grass is a cheaper and a better feed than silage and meal so production will increase when cows get access to grass. The trade-off between these advantages and leaving cows in the shed is a higher risk of poaching in spring.
Mitigate this risk by grazing drier paddocks when ground conditions are poor, use on/off grazing, allocate grass in 12-hour breaks and use a back fence. Getting the right allocation is critical. Start off grazing in a light cover, no more than 800 or 900kg/ha. Work out the area your herd needs. Most farmers just guess where to put up the strip wire, but the best farmers will actually step out the area.
Work out demand by multiplying the number of cows by their estimated intake for that grazing. Next, work out how many m2 you need to get a kg of grass dry matter. Do this by dividing the cover into 10,000 (eg 10,000/1,200kg = 8.33m2/kgDM). Then multiply this by demand and that is how many m2 you need to give the herd. Divide this by the width of the paddock and this will tell you the length of the strip you need to give. Always verify your calculations by checking the residuals.
Shane Leane, Teagasc Curtins, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9
Growth rate (kg/day) 6
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 885
Yield (l/cow/day) -
Fat % -
Protein % -
Milk solids (kg/cow) -
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3m 2s
Cows were on/off grazed every day over the past week. We are allocating 7kg of grass per day, they are getting 3kg of meal in the parlour and they get access to silage when they come in at 7pm until about midnight, and then they are shut away from silage. We have about 2% of the farm grazed so far. Pre-grazing yield is around 1,100kg/ha and we hope to have them out fulltime from Wednesday night and cut out the silage. There are 40 cows calved and the first load of milk was sent to the co-op on Sunday night.
Fergal Coughlan, Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.75
Growth rate (kg/day) 6
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1,115
Yield (l/cow/day) -
Fat % 4.22
Protein % 3.62
Milk solids (kg/cow) -
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4
Cows are now out grazing fulltime, but they were in for two days early in the week when it was lashing rain and they were grazing on/off before that. We have 40% of the cows calved, so the demand is high. Cows stay inside for the first four days after calving in a colostrum mob. We are getting a bad doing with milk fevers and are awaiting silage test results to see if potash levels are a problem. Re-growths from last week’s grazing are flying it. Growth on the clover is 6kg/day, while grass only is growing 9kg/day.
Shane O’Loughlin, Monasterevin, Co Kildare
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.1
Growth rate (kg/day) 12
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 901
Yield (l/cow/day) 21.5
Fat % 4.38
Protein % 3.48
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.74
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4
Up till now we have only been grazing by day, following the spring rotation planner at 0.6ha per day, which works out at a quarter of a paddock. Because the weather has improved I’m going to speed up slightly and get more ground grazed so we are going out by night from tonight. The farm is currently growing 12kg/day and grew 5kg/day over the winter. We have a half bag of urea spread and plan to go with two bags per acre of 18:6:12 in the next few weeks.
Peter Mongey, Slane, Co Meath
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.8
Growth rate (kg/day) 6
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 980
Yield (l/cow/day) 23.5
Fat % 4.38
Protein % 3.30
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.86
Supplement Fed (kg/cow/day) 5.6
Cows are out by day and grazing conditions are good enough. We are grazing the drier parts of the farm that have covers of 1,100 to 1,200kg. We were in full time for a few days when it was raining heavily but things have settled down again. Between the autumn and spring cows we are feeding 5.6kg/cow of meal. We are highly stocked and have a high demand with some autumn calvers. We have 25 units/acre of nitrogen spread and we are spreading slurry after grazing.
Read more
Grass+ beef: don't be afraid of early grazing
Average grass growth recorded on our Grass+ farms this week was 7kg per day. Similar to last week, many of the farmers are just getting around to doing their first grass walk now, so these growth rates mostly represent over-winter growth and it’s not necessarily what grew over the last week.
The forecast for the weekend and beyond is reasonably good – or as good as we can hope for. Now is the chance to get freshly calved cows out grazing. The basic objective is to get 30% of the farm grazed in February. If you achieve this you will grow more grass over the year. We all know that grass is a cheaper and a better feed than silage and meal so production will increase when cows get access to grass. The trade-off between these advantages and leaving cows in the shed is a higher risk of poaching in spring.
Mitigate this risk by grazing drier paddocks when ground conditions are poor, use on/off grazing, allocate grass in 12-hour breaks and use a back fence. Getting the right allocation is critical. Start off grazing in a light cover, no more than 800 or 900kg/ha. Work out the area your herd needs. Most farmers just guess where to put up the strip wire, but the best farmers will actually step out the area.
Work out demand by multiplying the number of cows by their estimated intake for that grazing. Next, work out how many m2 you need to get a kg of grass dry matter. Do this by dividing the cover into 10,000 (eg 10,000/1,200kg = 8.33m2/kgDM). Then multiply this by demand and that is how many m2 you need to give the herd. Divide this by the width of the paddock and this will tell you the length of the strip you need to give. Always verify your calculations by checking the residuals.
Shane Leane, Teagasc Curtins, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9
Growth rate (kg/day) 6
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 885
Yield (l/cow/day) -
Fat % -
Protein % -
Milk solids (kg/cow) -
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3m 2s
Cows were on/off grazed every day over the past week. We are allocating 7kg of grass per day, they are getting 3kg of meal in the parlour and they get access to silage when they come in at 7pm until about midnight, and then they are shut away from silage. We have about 2% of the farm grazed so far. Pre-grazing yield is around 1,100kg/ha and we hope to have them out fulltime from Wednesday night and cut out the silage. There are 40 cows calved and the first load of milk was sent to the co-op on Sunday night.
Fergal Coughlan, Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.75
Growth rate (kg/day) 6
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1,115
Yield (l/cow/day) -
Fat % 4.22
Protein % 3.62
Milk solids (kg/cow) -
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4
Cows are now out grazing fulltime, but they were in for two days early in the week when it was lashing rain and they were grazing on/off before that. We have 40% of the cows calved, so the demand is high. Cows stay inside for the first four days after calving in a colostrum mob. We are getting a bad doing with milk fevers and are awaiting silage test results to see if potash levels are a problem. Re-growths from last week’s grazing are flying it. Growth on the clover is 6kg/day, while grass only is growing 9kg/day.
Shane O’Loughlin, Monasterevin, Co Kildare
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.1
Growth rate (kg/day) 12
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 901
Yield (l/cow/day) 21.5
Fat % 4.38
Protein % 3.48
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.74
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4
Up till now we have only been grazing by day, following the spring rotation planner at 0.6ha per day, which works out at a quarter of a paddock. Because the weather has improved I’m going to speed up slightly and get more ground grazed so we are going out by night from tonight. The farm is currently growing 12kg/day and grew 5kg/day over the winter. We have a half bag of urea spread and plan to go with two bags per acre of 18:6:12 in the next few weeks.
Peter Mongey, Slane, Co Meath
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.8
Growth rate (kg/day) 6
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 980
Yield (l/cow/day) 23.5
Fat % 4.38
Protein % 3.30
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.86
Supplement Fed (kg/cow/day) 5.6
Cows are out by day and grazing conditions are good enough. We are grazing the drier parts of the farm that have covers of 1,100 to 1,200kg. We were in full time for a few days when it was raining heavily but things have settled down again. Between the autumn and spring cows we are feeding 5.6kg/cow of meal. We are highly stocked and have a high demand with some autumn calvers. We have 25 units/acre of nitrogen spread and we are spreading slurry after grazing.
Read more
Grass+ beef: don't be afraid of early grazing
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